Radio game



Dem- 1924 I 1,520,082 v w. R. PURNELL RADI 0 GAME Filed Oct. l6, 1923 W Parnell mime/m4,

Patented Dec. 23, 1924.

ire! srarcs WILLIAIVK R. PURNELL, F THE UNITED STATES NAVY. a

RADIO GAME. 1

Application filed October 16, 1923. Serial N 0. 668,823.

' To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VILLIAM R. PURNELL, alieutenant-commandcr in the United States Navy, at present attached to the S. S. l/Vyoming, Postmaster, New Xork, New York, and a citizen of the ,vices, and has for its object to provide a game of radio which will be comparatively inexpensive to manufacture, as well as one that will require skill to play and provide more amusement than those heretofore proposed. v I

WVith these and other objects in View, the invention consists in the novel details of construction and combination of parts more fully hereinafter disclosed and particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to' the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, in which like numerals designate like parts in all the views:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the game device as about to be played;

Figure 2 is. a view in elevation of one of the members used in playing the game;

Figure 3 is an enlarged view of one of the wire supporting or antenna members;

Figure s is a perspective view of a modified form of antenna; and

Figure 5 is an elevational view of one of the wire supporting or antenna members shown in Figure at.

eferring to the drawings, 1 and 2 are suitable bases having a vertical stem portion 3 and 4- provided with the set screws 7 and 8 and bored out to receive the standards or masts 5 and 6 which can be fastened in said stem portions at varying heights by the said set screws. The tops of the said masts are provided with the cap members 9 and 10 carrying the hooks 11 and 12 supporting, as by the wires 13 and 141, the end bars 15 and 16 to which are fastened the wires 17 of the aerial or antenna. 18 is a piece of soft material, such as felt, which may be supplied with the game and used when the game is to be played upon a hard surface. 19 is a thin, round, disk like chip provided with a hook 20 by which 7 the said chip may be suspended from the wires of the antenna as indicated in dotted lines in Figure 1, and 21 is a thin, round, disk like chip or snapper,-preferably larger than said chip, used by the player to snap or jump the chip, with its hook, up into the wires of the antenna in the same manner as in the old game of tiddle-de-winks.

In playing the game each player is provided, for example, with a set of four chips 19, each set being distinguished by a different color from the other sets, thus one set of four white, one set of four yellow, one set of four red, one set of four blue, etc. The player having first go then places one of his chips on the soft cover of the table or, ifthe game be played on a hard surface, on the piece of felt 18 and snaps the said chip toward the antenna Wires 17 with the snapper 21 as indicated in Figure 1, and in the well known manner used in the aforementioned game of tiddle-de-winks. That is, the snapper 21 is gripped between the thumb and. fingers, and the front edge of said snapper placed on top of the chip 19 at its near edge, as clearly shown in said Figure 1. The snapper is then brought toward the player giving it at the same time a quick, downward pressure, which results of course in the snapper 21 slipping off the edge of the chip 19. However, due to the soft and springy quality of the felt 18, or other material the chip 19 is proected upwardly and forwardly toward the antenna upon the removal of the pressure of the snapper 21. It is apparent therefore that the degree of pressure of, as 'well as the location of the snapper on the chip 19 will govern the direction and distance of travel of the said chip. If the player has exercised good skill his. chipwill hit the wires 17 and hang to one of them by the hook 20. I

Then the player having second go places his chip 19 which is of a different color than the chip of the first player on the felt 18 and snaps it as did his predecessor with the snapper 21, where-upon it too will travel upwardly toward the antenna wires 17. The play is thus continued, player by player, in succession until all four chips 19 of the players have been snapped.

The chips having no value, the interest of say of the game centers upon the wires 17 of the antenna, each of which may bear an identification mark located adjacent each wire on the end bars 15 and 16 such as 25, see Figure 3. These marks 25 may be numbers. or they may represent different broadcasting stations. Thus if numbers are given to the wires 17, the wire 26 fanihest from the player could bear the highest number, being the hardest to hook with a chip while the wire 27 nearest the said player could bear the lowest number, being easier to hook with said chip, and the wires 17 lying between these outer wires 26 and 27 could be given numbers of intermediate value. As an example, the wires shown in Figures 1 and 3 could be given such numbers as 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, the near wire 27 having the value of 1, and the far wire 26 having the value of 9. On the other hand, if the wires 17 be named for broadcasting stations, then the farthest wire 26 as stated above could be named for a station having a wide range or located at a great distance from the place where the game was being played to represent the difficulty in getting that station, while the name of a nearby station with a short range could be assigned to the near wire 27, and names of stations of varying distances and ranges could be given those wires lying intermediate said Wires 26 and 27. An ex ample of this identification, not illustrated in the drawings, could be ABC, DEF, GI-IJ, KLM, XYZ, where station ABC the name assigned to the near wire 27 had a range of, say, fifty miles, station XYZ the name assigned to the far wire 26 had a range five thousand miles, and stations DEF, GHJ, and KLM the names of the intermediate wire-s had approximate ranges of one hundred, five hundred, and one thousand miles respectively.

Thus it will be seen that great skill can be developed by playing this game, as well as much amusement obtained thereby, for not only can the felt 18 be moved farther away from the antenna, as the skill of the players increases, but the masts 5 and 6 can be raised, thereby elevating the antenna and so increasing the distance to he traveled by each chip 19. If desired, the masts 5 and 6 could be calibrated to insure both being set at equal heights.

In determining the score of this game each player adds up the values indicated at 25 in Figure 3 of those wires only upon which his chips 19 have become hooked, and the winner of course is that player having the highest score. For example, the player using white chips has succeeded in hooking on the antenna only one chip. the player using yellow chips has hooked only two thereon, the player using red chips has hooked only three thereon, and the player using blue chips has hooked only two chips on said antenna. The one white chip hooked onto a wire bearing the value four, the two yellow chips hooked onto the wires bearing the values 1 and 5, the three red chips hooked onto wires bearing the values one, two and four, while the two blue chips hooked onto wires bearing the values one and three. Upon adding the values of the wires 17 hooked by the chips of the same color it will be observed that the plea" h-.-iving the white chips totaled four, the player of the yellow chips totaled six, the player of the red chips totaled seven, and the player of the blue chips totaled four. Therefore, the player using the red chips would be declared the winner. In like manner would be determined the winner of the game if names of broadcasting stations were used to identify the wires 17 instead of numbers, the only difference be ing that the wire 27 having in the one case a number value of one would in the other case have astation or range value of fifty miles, the wire 26 having in the one case a number value of five would in the other case have a station or range value of five thousand miles, and so on.

In the antenna modification, illustrated in figures 4 and 5, the rings or circular end pieces 31 and 32 are employed to space the antenna wires 33 which pass through the said ring as shown. Thus the antenna may be formed of a single wire 33 threaded through the holes 34 in said rings and looped between the opposite ends of said antenna, or it may comprise a plurality of wires 33, in either case the extremities of the antenna wires being brought and fastened together in a manner to allow the antenna to be hung on the hooks 11 and 12 of the masts 5 and 6 illustrated in Figure 1. As in the case of the flat antenna, the wires 33 of this modified form are identified by marks indicated at 35, which may be numbers or names of broadcasting s5: 1 tions, all as hereinbefore described.

The advantages of the round or barrel types of antenna lie in the fact that when a chip falls upon the said round type it has two chances of hooking one of the wires 33, for should it not hook itself on the uppermost wire, it may hook onto a lower wire as the said chip drops through the antenna. A. further advantage lies in the fact that the barrel type may be turned around so as to have wires of different values uppermost. That is to say, when the game is first played and the players are more or less unskilled, the antenna could be hung on the masts so that the wires having the greatest values would be most easily hooked. But after the players became more skilled in playing the game, the antenna could be turned around so as to place the wires having the through and thereby be more likely to become hooked on some one wire.

Of course, the game could be played in various ways. For example the antenna. could consist of but a single strand of wire or other material, and the chips could bear the names of broadcasting stations in which case the player succeeding in hooking his chip first would be considered as hearing that station first and the player hearing the largest number of stations first would win the game. Or the game could be played with a single wire antenna, and colored chips,the different colors having different values such as white, one, yellow, two, red, three, blue, four, etc. No matter how the game is played the principle remains the same, that is, snapping hooked chips onto a wire or wires or other material in a manner requiring skill and such hooked chips cooperating with the wires in a manner to produce different results.

It will therefore be clear that the player will have not only the element of chance to chain his attention, but he will also be enabled to use a greater. or less amount of skill in playing this game. Therefore I do not wish to be limited to the above disclosure except as may be demanded by the claims.

lVhat I claim is:

1. In an amusement device, the combination of a strand simulating a radio antenna; a chip provided with means adapted to engage said strand; and means adapted to be manually operated and requiring skill to cause said first named means to engage said strand.

2. In an amusement device, the combination of a plurality of strands simulating a radio antenna; supports for said strands; a chip provided with means adapted to en gage one of said strands; and means adapted to be manually operated and requiring skill to cause said first named means to engage one of said strands.

In an amusement device, the combination of a plurality of wires held in spaced parallel relation and simulating a radio antenna; supports for said wires; a chip provided with means adapted to engage one of said wires; and means adapted to be manually operated and requiring skill to cause said first named means to engage one of said wires.

4. In an amusement device the combination of a plurality of wires held in spaced parallel relation and simulating a radio antenna; vertically adjustable supports for said wires; a chip provided with means adapted to engage one of said wires; and

means adapted to be manually operated and requiring skill to cause said first named means to engage one of said wires.

5. In an amusement device, the combination of a plurality of wires held in spaced parallel relation and simulating a radio an tenna; vertically adjustable supports for said wires; a thin, round, disk like chip provided with means adapted to engage one of said wires; and means adapted to be manually operated and requiring skill to cause said first named means to engage one of said wires.

6."In an amusement device, the-combination of a plurality of wires held in spaced parallel relation and simulating a radio antenna; vertically adjustable supports for said wires; a thin, round, disk like chip provided with means comprising a hook adapted to engage one of said wires; and means adapted to be manually operated and re quiring skill to cause said first named means to engage one of said wires.

7. In an amusement device, the combination of a plurality of wires held in spaced parallel relation and simulating a radio antenna; vertically adjustable supports for said wires; a thin, round, disk-like chip provided with means comprising a hook adapted to engage one of said wires; and means comprising a thin, round, disk-like chip adapted to be manually operated and requiring skill to cause said first named means to engage one of said wires.

8. In an amusement device, the combination of a plurality of wires simulating a radio antenna; means to hold said wires in spaced parallel relation; means to suspend said wires; a chip provided with means adapted to engage one of said wires; and manually operated means requiring skill to cause said last named means to engage one of said wires.

9. In an amusement device, the combina tion of a plurality of wires simulating a radio antenna; means to hold said wires in spaced parallel relation; vertically adjustable means to suspend said wires; a chip provided with means adapted to engage one of said wires; and manually operated means requiring skill to cause said last named means to engage one of said wires.

10. In an amusement device, the combination of a plurality of wires simulating a radio antenna; means to hold said wires in spaced parallel relation and provided With means to identify said wires; vertically adj ustable means to suspend said wires; a chip provided with means adapted to engage one of said wires; and manually operated means requiring skill to cause said last named means to engage one of said wires.

11. In an amusement device, the combination of a plurality of wires simulating a radio antenna; means to hold said wires in spaced parallel relation and provided With means constituting marks of value to identiliy said Wires; vertically adjustable means to suspend said Wires; a chip provided with means adapted to engage one of said wires; and manually operated means requiring skill to cause said last named means to engage one of said Wires.

12. In an amusement device, the combination of a plurality of Wires simulating a radio antenna; means to hold said Wires in spaced parallel elation and provided With means constituting marks of value to identify said Wires; vertically adjustablemeans T to suspend said Wires; a thin, round, disklike chip provided With means adapted to engage one of said wlres; and manually operated means requiring skill to cause said last named means to engage one of said wires.

13. In an amusement device, the combination of a plurality of Wires simulating a radio antenna; means to hold said wires in spaced parallel relation and provided With means constituting marks of value; to identify said Wires; vertically adjustable means to suspend said wires; a thin, round, disklike chip provided With means comprising a hook adapted to; engage one of said wires; and manually operated means requiring skill to cause said last named means to engage one of said 'WII'QS.

14-. In an amusement device, the combination of a plurality of Wires simulating a radio antenna; means to hold said Wires in spaced parallel relation and provided with means constituting marks of Value to identify said Wires; Vertically adjustable means to suspend said Wires; a thin, round, disklike chip provided With means comprising a hook adapted to engage one of said Wires; and manuallyoperated means comprising a thin, round, disk-like chip requiring skill to cause said last named means toengage one of said Wires.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

WILLIAM R. PURNELL. 

